<p>Hi everyone! I'm a Stamps Leadership scholar who's slightly bored at home during Winter Break. I'm here to answer any questions and help as much as possible with just giving information or preparing for interviews/essays/quick takes. You can find my stats and activities in some of my former posts-- I was at first invited to the Trustee interview before being bumped up to Stamps. Fire away!</p>
<p>My son just had his initial Stamps interview about a week ago (for a university in the East). He felt well prepared to speak about his leadership experiences but the selection committee seemed more interested in his knowledge about both global and cultural issues. Although the interview wasn’t a negative one we are feeling a little uneasy about it. They only asked him about a few things on his resume and didn’t even ask about some of the leadership positions that have given him the most experience. Can you give us any insight as to what they are looking for? We’re hoping that he makes it to the second round of interviews. We aren’t even sure how he can prepare for that at this point because we just don’t know exactly what they’re looking for. Thanks for any tips you can offer!</p>
<p>@dragonflymusic, wondering if you saw the above post. Any tips would be helpful. Thanks!</p>
<p>This is why I tell families to take a step back, don’t overthink this and to not to coach. It drives me nuts when I get those kids. I have students showing up for interviews (top 5 college) “well versed” in the stuff on their resume. I had one whose parent was an “interviewer” at an IVY league who prepped him. He expressed shock that I didn’t ask any of those questions. That’s not what interviews are about. And trust me - staff at many colleges now skim these boards because they know parents and students are revealing what they were asked in an interview. Like this one. sigh.</p>
<p>I never ask the same questions twice for that reason. And I’ve seen students declined at a friend’s college who’ve come on boards to discuss their interview questions (according to the interviewer they’re easy to identify).</p>
<p>The point of the interview is to get to know your son or daughter as a real person and get some sense of who they are outside of the classroom. It is what it is. </p>
<p>Families treat these things as just another measure to “prep” for and I wish they would relax. Either the student is impressive or they are not. Either they have the answers to the questions or they know how to explain that they don’t with grace.</p>
<p>There is no right or wrong. But prepping is the exact wrong thing to do. Interviewers have been doing this for a long time and I can tell you, when I do an interview I do indicate on my report if I think the student was prepped. And I do recommend a “not admit” if I can’t get that kid off the script.</p>
<p>So relax. Either your son is qualified, or he isn’t. There isn’t anything you can prep for now - and it’s a waste of time given that the questions aren’t always the same and interviewers often “change things up” depending on how the interview is going.</p>
<p>I think this should be true of any interview - show what you are passionate for, and that’s all you can do. “Prepping” for an interview likely isn’t your normal self. That being said, I know nothing about the high level interview process. I’m just here rambling.</p>
<p>@dragonflymusic Do you know any other full tuition scholarship recipients? Maybe any with slightly <em>less</em> impressive stats than you? 
</p>
<p>@ArtsandLetters, thank you for your perspective. It is very different from what we’ve been told. Our high school helps students to prepare for college interviews. They stress that it’s as important as preparing for a job interview (ie: know the school, know which skills/talents you have to offer, make the most of the short amount of time that you have to show them who you are, etc…). We actually ran into two teachers from our high school after my son had his interview and they were asking him “if he did this or that or said this or that” during his interview. It is easy to start second-guessing yourself… This is our first experience with something like this and we are just trying to do the right thing for him. We thought that “preparing” was the wisest choice. I hope we didn’t negatively affect his chances.</p>
<p>I want to be clear that I was not at all asking the OP to give us interview questions. I would never “cheat.” Obviously interviewers are going to change up their questions and hopefully just go with the natural flow of the conversation. We were just surprised that the conversation seemed to have less to do with my son’s leadership experiences. Afterall, that is what the scholarship is all about. I was just hoping to gain a greater insight from someone who is already involved. We are in unchartered territory and I was looking for guidance. Maybe I took the wrong route… I appreciate you sharing your thoughts on the topic though.</p>
@curiousinpa
Sorry for the late answer! USC doesn’t have a separate Stamps interview, but uses their Trustee/Presidential interviews to weed out potential Stamps scholar candidates. After that, we interviewed with Mr. Stamps who then determined who received the scholarship. In the second interview we didn’t speak much about leadership positions/activities on my resume because I had already talked about them extensively in both my interview and application. He focused more on what I would do at USC and what my future plans were.
@ARandomGeek
I would say most Trustees have stats comparable to mine-- the average for my Explore session was a 2320 SAT and a 35 ACT. That being said, the scholarships are highly arbitrary-- someone I know is interning for Google but received the Presidential scholarship.
If any one of you has any more questions, I would be more than happy to answer them. Cheers!
@curiousinpa
No problem. It’s natural to want to help a student. And sometimes college counselors help - sometimes they kill the kids chances. I worry more that they grilled him about what he answered when he was back home. It has become a performance objective for many counselors to get their kids into reach schools, so sometimes I worry that they’re interest is more about their own bottom line than the kid’s (no matter how much they hide it.)
My response was directed more at people who will be peeking in on these boards looking for the right answers for their kids to give. And my response it - in the context of these interviews there IS no right answer. They already know a lot about the students from their application. The purpose of an interview is to discover the student’s passions and who they are as a person. And I know (because I do it myself) the “manufactured” and “overly-prepped” kids get lower marks because we can’t be sure if we’re talking to the student who will enroll, or the adult cheerleading coaches behind him or her.
Hope it goes well for your child. This is a nail-biter for sure.